Ireland Trip Report **Finally Finished...Sort of p.13**

I've read a few trip reports and love hearing about the ABD trips. I also love reading people's planning adventures for WDW vacations on TR forums so I thought I would do both in one for my upcoming Ireland trip.

MODS - if that's not ok, feel free to delete, but I thought it would be a great spot for anyone going to ireland, and possibly to meet some fellow travelers

First let's meet the people going on this trip:
Me, Shannon, 28 y/o Speech Pathologist living in south Florida and my mom, who lives about an hour south of me:

And my niece, Claire, who will be 8 1/2 when we go on the trip:

Like it says in the title of this trip report, we are going on the Ireland vacation June 20, 2009. It will be all of our first times traveling internationally!

We are all of Irish descent, and my father was actually born in Galway and moved to the US when he was 18. He passed away in January of this year after battling cancer. So after years and years of my mom and I saying that we'll go to Ireland "someday", we decided that this was it. My dad still has some family living in that region. My maternal great-grandparents were also from Ireland. I think county cork or clare. I always forget which - maybe it's both.

So that's just a preview of how we decided on ABD and who we are. Stay tuned for updates that will include such exciting topics as booking airfare, when will we be able to book pre and post nights?, what clothes will we need and more!

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A trip to Ireland! How exciting!!! I would love to go there someday. What part of Ireland will you be traveling to? You've picked a great date, my husband & I will be married 11 years on June 20, 2009.

A trip to Ireland! How exciting!!! I would love to go there someday. What part of Ireland will you be traveling to? You've picked a great date, my husband & I will be married 11 years on June 20, 2009.

Have fun planning your trip & be sure to keep us posted.

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My first reader! This board doesn't really get much traffic unfortunately. But I'm going to write away anyway.

It is a 7 day 8 night adventure! It begins in Dublin, then Cashel and Killarney, Kenmare, Adare, and the Shannon region including the cliffs of moher. So we start on the east and end on the west. We are also planning/hoping to add a pre-night on in Dublin and a post-night on in Shannon so that we have a little extra touring time by ourselves.

Hi Shannon!
We're going to Ireland a few weeks before you so I can totally relate to your excitement!!

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So fun...we were thinking of the June 13, 17 or 20th but ended up going with June 20th because it will give me a little extra time once school is out (I work in a school) plus the EBD was only available for the 20th, not the 17th.

Hope you will stick with my trippie...our trips are close enough that we are sort of planning at the same time!

We want to do one extra night at the beginning and end of the trip. Unfortunately it is still unavailable for booking which is very frustrating for an OCD planner like myself. I called yesterday to check and a VERY friendly CM told me they should have the dates available today - as in the dates you can start booking, not the actual booking. So I called after dinner and still nothing. Another very friendly cm double checked my contact info and said she will have my "vacation specialist" notify me when booking becomes available or anything else is known about it. She also said to call back in 2 weeks if I don't hear from them.

I am looking forward to reading your TR and then also the actual trip report. I am most interested to hear how your neice enjoys the trip. I am thinking about an ABD tour for my daughters but I am not sure if they would be able to keep up with the pace.

I did finally receive my initial reservation papers yesterday - 4 days before they need to be signed and sent/faxed back. See, I just moved so my mail is taking a little longer to get to me. Plus my mom and I both have to sign it looks like and she lives an hour from me. I had planned on going home this coming weekend so I will have her sign it then. I also called ABD in a panic because I was afraid they would cancel my trip - she made a note on my reservation that it would be arriving late and she spoke to me about it. Hopefully that works.

And another ABD representative put my name on "a list" to have someone call me when extra nights can be booked. But to call in 2 weeks if I haven't heard from anyone. I think it has been almost 1 week since then.

Airfare is still not booked. DSIL's comment on my huge email discussing when to book and the cost, etc's reply? "wow - expensive" and then proceeded to talk about everything but booking the airfaire. Super.

I still think we have some time but I really do not want to wait too long.

I've been feeling lately like this trip isn't real. I can't fathom in my head that in 9 months I will be touring Ireland. Crazy.

I am looking forward to reading your TR and then also the actual trip report. I am most interested to hear how your neice enjoys the trip. I am thinking about an ABD tour for my daughters but I am not sure if they would be able to keep up with the pace.

Lisa

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My niece is pretty used to busy, on the go vacations since that is what DSIL and DB take. She also goes to WDW with my mom, her brother and I all the time. The thing I'm most concerned about is the food! She can be a bit picky - so I'm hoping they have kid friendly american-y choices for her.

Hi Shannon glad you started this thread DH and I will be on the July 4 Ireland trip. So excited! We also are going to be booking before or after nights. We have family that will be in Ireland the same time so we are waiting for them to get their plans set to meet up with them before or after our tour. Even if it's after we will book a night before the tour starts I know I won't sleep on the plane and will need a day to get back to myself. We're going to Florida first week of November will see the others then I've told them they need to have their plans set by then so I can make mine when we get back. We'll see they are great people just not good planners more the last minute type which is usually ok for me but I'm too excited about this trip so want to get it set.

We're going on the July 22 trip. Me, DH, DS 13, DS10, DS who turns 8 on the trip!

We still haven't been contacted about pre-night stay and we called August 1.

I'm just worried that the trip will be cancelled for lack of interest. I'm going to be calling in a couple of weeks to see how its filling up.

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The pre- and post-nights aren't in the system yet for any of the Emerald Isle dates. I just asked about 30 minutes ago. Hopefully, we can add them by next week though!

I'm seeing more interest for the Ireland trip than ever before, so I don't think you'll have to worry. In the 20+ reservations I've made since August 1, four of them were for that trip (one in May, one in June, two in July) and that's a high percentage! Get your friends to go with you -- that'll help. ;-)

We just returned last Thursday. This is truely a trip of a life time!!!!! The castle was the best part of the trip. I would mention your concerns to ABD and see what they say to you. You should see if they can make accomodations for a fussy eater? Asking never hurts!!!! Happy planning, if you should have any questions, please let me know.

ABD just called me this morning to add the pre-trip night. It'll cost us $795 for my family of 5. Sigh. Also, I asked if there was anyone else booked on our trip and she said NO! That is very discouraging! I had called about a month ago and there had been another family so they must have cancelled.

I'm so worried that it won't go. Its a complicated trip for me to plan as we are going to Portugal to visit family first. If I had to cancel the trip last minute and try to rebook to a different date, I would need to change my Ireland flights and my Portugal flights back as well.

I wish I had waited to book as I hate the fact that so many trips are cancelled. I feel that I will be out of pocket significantly, we're talking thousands, plus disappointed to boot, if its cancelled.

We just returned last Thursday. This is truely a trip of a life time!!!!! The castle was the best part of the trip. I would mention your concerns to ABD and see what they say to you. You should see if they can make accomodations for a fussy eater? Asking never hurts!!!! Happy planning, if you should have any questions, please let me know.

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Oh Wow! I don't think it's so bad that she'd need special meals, but the girl likes to eat and, like he auntie, gets very grumpy when she is hungry. Do you recall what some of the kid food was?

Are you doing a trip report? Or would you mind sharing some brief highlights or pics?

ABD just called me this morning to add the pre-trip night. It'll cost us $795 for my family of 5. Sigh. Also, I asked if there was anyone else booked on our trip and she said NO! That is very discouraging! I had called about a month ago and there had been another family so they must have cancelled.

I'm so worried that it won't go. Its a complicated trip for me to plan as we are going to Portugal to visit family first. If I had to cancel the trip last minute and try to rebook to a different date, I would need to change my Ireland flights and my Portugal flights back as well.

I wish I had waited to book as I hate the fact that so many trips are cancelled. I feel that I will be out of pocket significantly, we're talking thousands, plus disappointed to boot, if its cancelled.

Next time I'll stick to cruises, they're never cancelled!

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What trip are you booked on? I hope that mine doesn't get cancelled!

I was also contacted today about pre/post nights. I went with one night pre and one night post. I do remember that the cost of the post night at the castle was more than double the cost of the prenight. yikes. but this is a once in a lifetime trip for us probably. So, we are scrimping and saving every little bit we can to make it happen.

I also spoke with my cousin who lives in Galway and he is looking forward to spending some time with us at the end of our trip - our extra day at dromoland. Should be lots of fun.

Sorry for such a short update...I'm crazy with work and just been busy. Plus haven't had much to report.

With the current state of the economy, all of my past experience with AbD may be worthless, but I do find that these trips pick up towards the end of the year and into January. August is busy with new bookings on the more popular trips so that the early booking discount is still there. However, the next big surge in bookings is usually around the holidays when a) families get together and discuss where they're going for vacation (after a lot of eggnog, when they actually think they'll get along for a week), and b) companies are looking for employees to give notice of when they will be taking vacations. It forces the decision of when and where to go.